College

UConn junior guard Caroline Doty underwent successful surgery to repair the torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee Tuesday at the UConn Health Center in Farmington, and according to her father, she will be back in the training room by Thursday.

“She made out great,’’ Kevin Doty said. “Dr. (Robert) Arciero was real pleased. No surprises. Obviously, she’s beat up and hurting like hell. But she looks good. It’s a tough situation. I think the outcome was very positive. Hopefully, it continues to progress that way.’’

Tuesday’s procedure marked the third time Doty underwent surgery to repair a torn ACL in her left knee since her senior year of high school. She also had surgery midway through her freshman season at UConn after tearing the ACL again. This time, Arciero also repaired a small posterior meniscus tear in the knee.

Doty had been experiencing discomfort in her knee throughout this summer, and then in late July the pain intensified during a simple layup drill. As a result, she underwent an MRI.

Arciero in consultation with New York Giants orthopedic surgeon Dr. Russell Warren, determined as a result the test, that the graft from the surgery her freshman season was never completely accepted by her body.

During that surgery, the tendon used was taken from cadaver and it was ultimately rejected by her body.

Doty’s father said that graft from the surgery on Jan. 22, 2009 was just a ticking time bomb waiting to explode.

He said this time Arciero used a patella tendon taken from Doty’s right knee to repair her left knee Thursday.

“Every surgery went well,” Kevin Doty said. “There were no surprises in any of them. This last one (was needed) just because the graft didn’t take. But there were no surprises. It went along like clockwork, but it was a very lengthy procedure.”

While the surgery took three hours, Doty’s father said it won’t take long at all for her to get into the trainer’s room to begin her rehabilitation. He said she will begin working out Thursday to regain range of motion, because the knee is fully repaired and Arciero doesn’t want any scar tissue to form.

The quick start to rehab shouldn’t be misconstrued to think that Arciero or Doty are rushing things. It has already been determined that she will miss the coming season, and by sitting out with a medical redshirt exemption she will still maintain two years of eligibility when she returns next year.

“(Arciero) may even be a little more conservative this time, because basically she has 12 months to get better,” Kevin Doty said. “Even last year, the timetable with very conserative. It was never rushed or moved up or anything like that.

“He may just say we can just make sure this thing really gives it every opportunity to totally take and heal, which being her own tendon we won’t have that rejection factor that we had to deal with like the allowgraft from the cadaver.”

After missing the final 22 games of her freshman season, Doty averaged 6.8 points and 3.5 assists in 39 games (38 starts) last season.

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